The ebook is software, the book is inert
On the pages of our blog we have not missed an opportunity to affirm, even arrogantly, that ebook and book are two completely different things, even if deceptively similar due to the initial filiation relationship. We brought the example of the relationship between cinema and theatre, that of video games with games and asserted that it is not just a question of a change of technology from book to ebook, but above all of content and fruition. The ebook is software + content, the book is not and this capital difference makes them two completely different means. It is the software that defines the essence of the ebook. It's not that it's such a difficult thing to understand or the first thing that happens in the history of science and technology.
Even the passage from the scriptorium of the scribes to the movable type typography invented by Gutenberg (1455) did not have an immediate effect on the content. That of the Mainz printer/inventor was not only a technical revolution, it was a cultural and social revolution without which the Protestant Reformation would be a footnote in the history books.
The writer Valeria Luiselli deals precisely with these issues in the weekend supplement of the "Financial Times" of April 2, 2016 in an article with the inspired title Dickens+MP3÷Cervantes–Wikipedia=21st-century novel. The Mexico City native, with residences in New York and Venice, informs us that it took 150 years for Gutenberg's revolution to transfer into content thanks to Cervantes' Don Quixote (1605), the first modern novel . And she adds: “Maybe we have to wait another 150 years before the first post-Internet novel is conceived? With the exception of the ephemeral enthusiasm for the Twitter-novel, the novel has remained much the same”. Well, the ebook has only been around for 9 years, maybe it's too early for something comparable to what happened with Don Quixote to happen four centuries ago. Innovation must be fast but not as we would like and it doesn't even seem to be as profound as the one that took place at the time of the second industrial revolution. As Peter Thiel says, who generally guesses us, from the XXI we expected flying machines and we had 140 characters. We expected the three-dimensional, interactive book and got a nice screen copy of the printed page invented five centuries ago.
The pro-ebook club
Now another prestigious voice is added, that of the technological superblog Tech Crunch, to the club of the few remaining fans of the new generation ebook. Technologists like Mike Shatzkin or authors like Hugh Howey have so far preached in the desert, because neither the big publishers, nor the big authors, nor even Amazon, which has invested the sector like a fury, have understood that if the ebook is a facsimile of the book the only reason why the former can be preferred over the latter is the substantial difference in price. As long as this was there, the ebook went like a missile fired into the sky, when this failed the ebook fell down like a carrier that ran out of fuel.
It can be said that the strategy of Amazon to focus on the ebook as a replica of the book at a highly competitive price worked up to a certain point and then failed in its purpose. The depressing thing is that we still don't see a new strategy that can effectively replace it; a different strategy from that of consolidating the Amazon planet as a closed entity with no more bridges to the traditional industry and its milieu of authors and professionals. Let's hope Bezos and Grandinetti pull some magic out of their hats. Not an easy undertaking, but possible, even if Amazon is increasingly becoming a diversified conglomerate of multiple businesses that have become much more important than its original business, which is to sell books with e-commerce.
In the meantime we just have to complain and broaden the base of the protest of those who, still preferring reading to having fun and messing around, demand that something better than the current ebooks be placed on their reading devices by authors, publishers and by Amazon.
It is precisely in this spirit that we offer the Italian reader the translation of an article published by Tech Crunch, the best-known technology blog now part of AOL. The article entitled E-books are more than just digital facsimiles, and publishers need to realize that, ready was written by one of the most interesting and best-prepared contributors to the San Francisco site: Haje Jan Kamps. We agree 100% with what Haje wrote.
The limits of e-readers
THEAmazon Kindle, and the other less popular e-readers, are a great thing for reading novels, but they become a bore, a frustration and a pain when a content must not be read page after page, but consulted by moving freely within it .
Take for example books and travel guides. When we're traveling across the globe, carrying a few pounds of mighty guides is a big pain in the back. It's much more practical to lug around an e-reader than a shelf of travel guides. The ebook is certainly a winner. Unfortunately, though, the challenge isn't one of weight, but the way the guides are structured and how easy they are to navigate.
When we are travelling, it is all a hopping from one section to another, from the general map to the maps of individual places, from advice on what to see to advice on where to eat and stay up to the more practical matters concerning passports, visas, area codes and numbers to call for emergencies.
Paper books work well for what they are supposed to do
It's not the fault of ebooks that they can sometimes seem irritating. The fact is that the physical, paper book has an incredibly efficient user interface. You can use your fingers or sticky notes as page markers and move from section to section so fast that the technology can't match. You can write notes in the margin, you can highlight lines or underline words or ear the page to mark an important point or reading point reached. You can even do what a friend of mine did in an attempt to reduce the weight of a book: break it into half a dozen parts and then reassemble it into a new sequence of topics.
There are other types of books that have similar non-linearity issues. I recently had to consult a book for the college entrance test. The official guide and the n. 8 in the bestseller list of this category, but it is absolutely not usable for studying. The book is full of very useful information, but the Kindle version is practically unusable. The formatting is awful, but that's the least of its problems.
The book contains phrases such as “see page 29 for score”, ignoring the fact that most e-readers don't have page numbers, nor does the concept of page exist in ebooks. The only thing that can be said to the poor fellow who has provided himself with this version of the book is that he has made a wrong purchase: "If you had bought the paper book this reference would have made sense, instead with the ebook it is devoid even of any sense.”
Another thing that leaves you speechless is the question and answer/solution section. In the ebook they are separate and there is no way to jump from one to the other with any link or shortcut. It is a pity! You have to click forward 25 times to read the answer and back 25 times to return to the question and when you are at the answers you have to scroll to find the one of the question that you may have already forgotten. Realistically such a thing is not feasible and instead of huffing, it's quicker to pick up the phone and call the Kindle Store support to get the money back for the ebook.
Not using ebook technology is an unforgivable shortcoming
Even if the publisher didn't know the potential of the intelligent technology embedded in ebooks (which could be one explanation, albeit a very embarrassing one), there are many ways to avoid a bad impression. For example in the case of the question and answer section, it would be enough to repeat the question in the answer part: there are no additional costs of pages or foliation in an ebook.
For the question "see p. 26 for more information on X,” the editor could have written “We cover topic X later in this book”. This too is of little use, but at least it's not a mockery like the first indication. Some types of books, particularly those with high graphic, photographic or illustrative content, do not work well on e-readers with i-ink technology.
In criticizing publishers I also criticize myself. Only a fraction of my books are available as ebooks, and my best selling book (The Rules of Photography and When to Break Them) is the worst example of how an ebook should be constructed. As the title suggests, it is full of photographs. There is a Kindle edition that just doesn't make sense - the book has tons of examples and trying to discuss these examples on a black and white display is a pure waste of time.
Publishers: adapt or die
The fact is that e-ink technology is only suitable for certain categories of books. E-readers are perfect for reading novels on the go or on vacation: you can carry a whole shelf of literature on one device whose battery lasts several weeks. And what's more, no one can see that you're reading 50 Shades of Grey. Perfect.
The technology of e-readers it is maturing fast. Highlights, bookmarks, footnotes, annotations and cross references are now a common standard. The biggest change from 5 years ago is that you can now read college textbooks on e-readers without too much trouble.
Overall here we are. Using platforms like iBooks Author or Amazon KDP, there is a lot of technology and tools available to publishers. However, many of these tools are rarely used. And here, ladies and gentlemen, lies the tragedy.
For some users, such as those of travel guides or picture books, apps or websites are a better solution. For tourists TripAdvisor or Foursquare they work better than ebooks, but both apps and websites require an active Internet connection, and for many travelers not being connected is the beauty of their experience or simply an economic necessity.
Having said that, carrying travel guides on mobile phones and tablets would be very important. Furthermore the fabulous retina display technology on color devices, the GPS mounted on most of these, the camera and a ton of other tools make them the most suitable medium for those on the go.
Finally, technology is on the march and e-ink, ebook and other publishing technologies will continue to improve. Therefore if publishers are to survive as an industry, they should be let know that they are a huge mistake to publish a pure digital replica of the paper book. If this continues, the best case scenario is that readers will gladly accept this state of affairs, but more realistically, readers will make a note in their minds never to purchase a guidebook, college textbook, or picture book on an e-reader. .
Publishers, if you want to stay in business, stop fooling your readers.
